Posts in category Kingdom

Put yourself in the shoes of the king. You want to see things done in the world but the people you want to do them are just not listening. So what do you do, you find people who will listen and get them to help you see the world change in the way you want to see it changed.

Umm it is not the first time people have spurned the king’s invitations. There is a story about invitations being given to people and those who received them making all sorts of excuses why they could not respond to these invitations.

Maybe that is a bit unfair as they were more like reasons that sounded really good in the context that they were given. However as those who were originally asked to attend the banquet did not respond to the king he told his servants to go out and invite anyone who would respond.

In fact it turned out to be some very unexpected people who came to the banquet. These were people who quite honestly would have not been seen as being worth bothering with by the original guests.

As in the way of such stories they are told in such a way that the people telling them make themselves look good. They forget that it might be possible to use them to put them in the shoes of those who did not accept the invitations.

What do you mean by invitations?

The problem with a story like this is that so often we are taught a way to think about such a story. However, there are often principles hidden in the story that can be used in more than one context. When we only apply those principles to one context we can limit the effectiveness of the story.

There is more than one way that the king can bypass the people who he wants to see do things if they are not doing what he wants them to do. What if those people are not growing food in the way that the king wants them to do? Sounds strange but I have started to see this in action.

You see what has happened in the world of growing food is that we have learnt that various things work and have added fertilisers to the point where the water supply has been impacted negatively by them. We have grown food with short term benefits in mind. We have used chemicals that were developed for use against enemies in war time because the people who made them wanted to continue making them in peace time. It is as if we have wandered away from the king’s way of growing food in all sorts of ways.

So what has happened? Some people have heard the king say please look after the land better. Stop doing this and start doing that because it is better for the planet in the long term. However not all of those you would have expected to receive the invitation to reap the long term rewards for using the land have responded to it. Some of them have simply not heard or ignored the king.

What can the king do? He can ask the people who he would not ordinarily ask to work with him to improve the situation. The people who are dusty and dirty. The people who make those originally invited uncomfortable. They are the ones who are not held back by the traditions and old ways of doing things. They are the ones who are able and willing to give the new ideas a chance to work.

Who then is working with the king?

Anyone who will listen to him. Yes even those who have not made the choice to develop a relationship with the king and be adopted as his child. In fact some of those who are willing to work with him seem quite strange and have ideas and ways of doing things that are really unacceptable to the king. Crumbs they may be running away from a relationship with him or have no understanding of how to relate to him yet because they responded to the invitation to work with him they are doing what he wanted them to do.

The problem is what else was the king supposed to do. He had to find a way to get around the objections of the people he wanted to improve the world for him. He could not let their deaf ears stop the world benefiting from those ideas.

We see people using the principles of permaculture and stop and think if there are any underlying principles that makes it harder for the king’s children to get involved. Sadly often we see people whose form of spirituality is nothing at all to do with that promoted by the children of the king.

Seeing that sets warning bells ringing. We don’t want to get involved with people like that. It is scary. We don’t want to rub shoulders with people who don’t understand the spirituality of the king and who only know about spiritual experiences that make the children of the king cringe and that they shy away from.

Believe it or not the children of the king can then run further away from doing things the king’s way. This is because they now have two issues. One being that they do not understand that the king wants them to do practical things like growing food in ways that takes better care of people and of the planet. The other being that they struggle to accept these ideas because they are unsure about the spirituality of the people working hard to spread them.

One of the natural things that happen is that once people think negatively about an idea they will do everything in their power to protect others from that idea. It makes sense as if you think that something is negative or will harm people then you will want to protect them from it. That can be tough, especially in situations where people see something that is in reality good as likely to have a negative impact on others. In that situation, discouragement offered in the hope of protecting them could stop them doing something that is in reality good for them.

The sad thing about this is that it is like history repeating itself. There were people who rejected the way the king’s son did things. People who objected so vehemently that they arranged to have him killed. We have been taught by those who have the advantage of hindsight that these people got it wrong.

If we simply stepped back a little we might see that we are the ones who are rejecting the ways that the king wants things to be done. We are the ones that are continuing to do things in a way that is not acceptable to the king while those that we reject are actually doing things in a way that is acceptable to the king.

The difference between the different forms of the good news

Many of the king’s children think that the only form of the good news is the good news that the king wants them to be his children. This is the best good news of all as once you are the king’s child he will never change his choice to adopt you. OK if you decided that you no longer wanted that adoption to be recognised then he loves you too much to hold onto you against your will. The impact of that adoption goes on beyond the end of life on earth so it is not something to be handled lightly.

It sounds somewhat alien to many of the king’s children but there are other forms of good news. For example the good news of growing food in such a way that it does not harm the planet. Somehow it does not register with them that this is good news as far as the king is concerned. Such good news that he is determined to spread it even if his children reject it and then reject the people who spread it for him.

The king’s children concentrate on helping others become God’s children. It is as if they often have a one track mind. Anything else that they could do to improve the world around or the lives around them falls off their radar. Changing the world and improving the lives of those around them is too unimportant to bother with.

The sad thing is that by doing this and sticking to the ideas that seem to contradict what the king wants to see they are making it so much harder for some people to become children of the king. You see if some people could understand that they could keep these ideas in the forefront of their lives and still be a child of the king then they would be more interested in the adoption process. If they understood that these ideas are in line with what the king wanted to see done in the world then they would be interested in getting to know him better.

It is not an either or situation. The best thing is a both and situation. May the eyes of the children of the king be opened so that they can see things the way that the king does and may they do and be all that the king wants them to be and do.

On the surface this seems a fairly simple comparison. It is fairly obvious what the contrast of the wicked and upright is. The classic idea of the wicked is the person who uses black hat methods and is unethical even cruel. Compare this to the upright person who wears the white hat and is moral and kind. The other fairly obvious contrast is the idea of being destroyed or pulled down compared to flourishing or being built up. But a household versus a tent what is that all about?

A household is often seen as something that has a level of permanence especially in ancient wisdom. It is seen as comprising of a number of generations. Some times the word house refers to a generational line that does back 500 years or more. That fairly permanent!

We hear today about the idea that families (or modern households) are the building blocks of a secure society. They are often the first port of call in times of hardship or struggle. They are a mutual interdependence network that strengthens society as a whole. The younger ones supporting the older ones until the older ones need to be supported by the younger ones. Households are supposed to be solid and permanent as they support each together.

Contrast with a tent which is a fragile thing. It provides some protection from the winds the rain and even the sun. However, when things get tough it does not stand up to the elements. It may even blow away in a storm if it is not secured firmly.

Tents are often seen as temporary solutions to the problem of where to live. They can be gathered up and packed into what transport is available. (Try doing that with a house!) They can then be set up in a new location. Tents are not known for their permanence of stability.

Why these pictures?

It is the contrast between the stability of the wicked being destroyed and the fragility of the upright that is supposed to make people sit up and take notice. You would expect the stable thing to flourish and the fragile thing to be destroyed. Yet it what is upright that flourishes even if it is fragile or temporary and the wicked thing that is destroyed even if it seems stable and permanent. Quite a turn around!

One way we express the idea of making mistakes is to throwing good things down the drain or flushing money down the toilet. You can see the connection between being wicked and making mistakes. Of course not all mistakes are wicked but many would say that being wicked is a mistake.

Another link is the idea that a good man i.e. one that is not wicked uses their money to support their family. It is a bit difficult to do that when you have done things that waste your money. If you fritter your money away by gambling or drinking then you don’t have the money to support your family and you may find yourself being called wicked.

The strange thing is that the first thought that I had when I chose the picture of the man carrying something was that he could be carrying gold bullion or other precious metal. It was only later that I realised that those boxes could contain his tent. What he is doing he is a man on the move. He is someone who is able and willing to make something of his life.

How does this apply to Lily’s Place (or even to you)?

The vision of Lily’s Place was so extensive it was crazy. The dream was to provide for just about every need someone in mental distress could have, even those that are currently paid for and provided by central government. It seemed crazy to have been given a dream of what the end product was going to be like, especially one that did things that were already being done.. I mean why would something like lily’s Place need to be raised up to provide things that were already being provided. See what I mean about sounding crazy.

This was when I started to see the possibilities of the future. The economy started to sink. Austerity measures kicked in. The idea that the UK government had borrowed so much money that it would never be able to repay it started to generate real concern.

I had seen the idea of borrowing more and more on a personal scale. People started comparing government borrowing to personal borrowing saying that the same rules and expectations applied to governments as they do to individuals.

That is when it got scary. Could it really be the case that the country could go bankrupt? Could it be that the government would not have the money to pay for the things we once took for granted? Could it be that the government was counted among the wicked because it had debts and did nor pay them back?

We think of governments being like households and lasting for generations. What if they were classed as wicked and destroyed? We would then need the upright to set up tents to help those left unprotected by the major social and economic changes that this would bring.

No one can accurately predict the future. We can take some good guesses though. After that we can take actions that make the future easier no matter whether the future is better or worse than today. The dream of Lily’s Place is to do things today that will make tomorrow easier whether or not it turns out to be disastrous.

We often think that life is unfair and in a way this quotation proves it. It compares what happens to the righteous and what happens tot he wicked. The righteous are those who are virtuous or free from guilt and sin. The wicked are those who are immoral, evil or just mischievous.

It is one of those well crafted sayings that express a principle. There are literally hundreds of such statements in this book of proverbs. The amazing thing is that this book was written over 3000 years ago yet it still resonates with people.

What could this idea mean in practise?

The first thing to notice is that there is no sense of people being judged about whether they are righteous or wicked. People make their own choice of what category they fall in as a result of their actions. No one is saying you are this or you are that.

What it does support is the idea of if you don’t hurt anyone else then other people will not hurt you. I suppose that we have learnt that by experience. What it seems to say is that there is a sort of reciprocation arrangement in the world so that if you hurt someone somehow you are going to end up in a mess yourself.

It does not say what kind of misfortune someone might have. Or what kind of loss or damage they may experience. Or what has caused their misery or serious unhappiness. It could be anything. It might not even be directly related to the unpleasant things that they have done. The idea is that if someone does immoral things they will have so many problems as a result that they will end up having a miserable life.

Something else it does not say is that bad things do not happen to good people. What it says is that if bad things do happen then good people are not as likely to come to harm as bad people do.

It depends on how you see things

Two days before I wrote this I discovered that there was a problem with my car. I was going to do into town but when I tried moving it off the drive it made the most horrendous noise. When the wheels turned there was such a banging noise that I did not dare move it very far.

As I was checking the car I found a piece of metal I was not sure if it came off the car or not. However I later discovered that the springs that formed part of the suspension on the off side front wheel had broken. Umm that piece of metal was the same shape as part of that spring.

I had driven home from a church meeting without a problem but when I tried to go out again the car was very unhappy. I discovered another problem while trying to work out what had happened as I could not undo the spare wheel. The jack that came with the car is stored in the same place as the spare wheel. The last time the spare wheel had been checked the compartment had been fastened so tight that I could not open it.

Brilliant I was stuck. But do you know what I ended up rejoicing when I realised what had NOT happened. The spring had not broken while I was on my own driving along a lonely cold dark road. I had managed to get home safely before it broke. The spare wheel was inaccessible but I had not needed it in the many months since a garage accidentally made it in accessible. Things had gone wrong but I had not come to any great harm as I could have done.

OK I could be annoyed by having to go over so many humps in the road that it had damaged by car. Or I could cross be with myself for struggling to position the car so that I went over those humps in such a way that it took less of a toll on the car. Both of these things are true but I am choosing to focus on being thankful that the things that I feared could happen had not happened.

The other amazing thing is that I managed to get it fixed relatively easily and within a short period of time. I found a way of getting it to a garage without driving it that was not that expensive. The garage was able to fix it quicker than I thought they would be able to do.

Oops that sounds as though I am claiming to be righteous. I know that sounds a bit big headed in ways but what is true is that I am trying to avoid being immoral. What this proverb suggests is that this attitude is what had helped keep me from harm.

How does relate to this idea of the Kingdom?

One of the lovely things about being part of this kingdom is that those who have done what is needed to be seen as a prince or princess are counted as righteous. It is not that they are perfect or good enough in themselves but the fact that they are counted as as a prince or princess means that they are seen as the righteous ones who the king protects from harm.

I was trying to think about what were the benefits of being part of the kingdom and to be honest I was struggling to come up with a list. It seemed to be a list of things that I took for granted. It is not usually easy to see the things that we take for granted simply because they do not stand out to us because they are so “normal”.

Here was something that seemed normal to me but when I looked carefully at what had happened it was one of those benefits I had taken for granted. Yes things had gone wrong but I was kept from harm when they had. Of course it depends on how you interpret what happened, but I chose to interpret events as being protected from harm.

How does this apply to you?

Events happen and often it is how we see them that influences how we react. When I have seen how much better things have been than they could have been it has brought tears of gratitude to my eyes. Tears are only an overflow of emotion and you can cry if you are thankful.

When was the last time you cried tears of thankfulness because you were kept from harm?

You too can give your life a boost by being grateful for the things that have gone right. Even in the times when they might look as if they have not gone to plan. It will also have a boost from trying to do things in a way that does not harm other people. You see if you are trying to avoid hurting others then you will reap a harvest. This harvest will comprise of situations not being as harmful to you as they could have been.

Now what good are you doing to others? Good that might somehow become a harvest of good things coming back to you.

The king’s son was angry. He was speaking to people who were supposed to be doing what the king wanted but they weren’t. They were doing what they thought was right because they were frightened at he consequences of making mistakes.

The reason why they were not doing what the king wanted

Many years before in the history of their community some people had not done what was right. Although the king was merciful and reminded them of a better way of doing things they did not listen.

Eventually that community suffered a huge disaster. It was attacked by enemies of the king who killed some of the community and most of the rest were taken prisoner. These prisoners were taken away into exile to a country far far away. They had made the king so angry that although he could have protected them he didn’t

It was not the first time this had happened to a community. Other communities had just disappeared without trace. They never went back to where they called home and stopped being a distinct community.

This time though it was different. Even as he was allowing them to be carried away the king sent a messenger to them called Jeremiah. Jeremiah told them that they had a hope and a future because the king had plans for them.

This new future did become reality. A few decades later many of the descendants of these people came back to their land. They were encouraged by Nehemiah to rebuild their homes and Ezekiel to rebuild their worship centre. They were back in the land and were able to make a fresh start.

What they were doing instead

Look at it that way and you can understand why some people now looked at the king’s instructions and became extremely zealous in their attempts to make sure that they were followed. Their fear of not doing what the king wanted led to them doing extra things so it became harder to do things that they knew the king did not want them to do.

You know the sort of thing. You have to make sure that something gets done by 7 pm so you aim to do it by 6 pm. That way even if you have a few problems and you don’t get it done by your deadline you can still meet the real deadline.

The problem according to Matthew was that the king’s son was annoyed with them as they had all these extra rules. Keeping all these extra rules was really hard work so the community split into two groups, the goody2shoes group and the ordinary group.

Some of the ordinary group were quite hurt by this goody2shoes group. After all they kept being told that they were not good enough and had to do better so that the same bad things didn’t happen to the community.

This did not please the king at all. He loved these ordinary people. He did not like the way they were told that they were not good enough. He loved them and he wanted them to do things for him, special things.

What did the king’s son do

The king’s son did not just have arguments with the goody2shoes people and tell them how wrong they were he actually did something to change the situation. That something was to gather some of the ordinary people together who wanted to hear what he said and teach them to do special things for the king. They learnt how to do things in the name of the king that changed the lives of people for the better.

It was a long time a go when the king’s son came to do this. The king’s son did something even more special as he made it possible for everyone to be seen as the king’s child. (That’s another story for another time). Suffice to say that a child has a special relationship with their father. They are cared for, given all that they need and enabled to do special things for their father.

What could this mean to us today?

That is where I started thinking about all of this. You see Matthew says that one one of the mistakes the goody2shoes people made was that they did not do what the king wanted them to do because they were frightened of doing the wrong thing. They had developed so many traditions and ways of doing things that it stopped them doing what the king wanted.

Ouch. The rules passed down through the generations of goody2shoes people had stopped them doing what the king wanted them to do. How many times do we hear things like the king wants me to do this but my family or my teacher or other people in the community say that it is wrong therefore I won’t do it. In other words the rules, the traditions and the expectations of others stop us doing what the king wants us to do.

That is radical. That is seriously uncomfortable for everyone. Personally my most recent challenge has been standing up to those who uphold tradition to say that this is the new way that I believe that the king wants to see this done.

This means getting on and doing what the king wants done no matter what others say, even those who are the king’s children. Of course that does not mean being obnoxious or unnecessary difficult. That to be honest just upsets the king as he sees the pain of the arguing and fighting.

It does mean being in a close relationship with the king in order to hear his commands clearly and to get his back up and support. You see it is only when we move forwards in the name of the king doing the things that he wants us to do in the way that he wants us to do that that we will succeed.

What was the fate of the goody2shoes people?

They had lost the plot. They were written out of the king’s story. You see their plan did not keep them safe. They still managed to upset the king. In fact in some ways their attitude made them into enemies of the king. leading them to do what they could to silence the king’s son. However, that plan did not work for them. In fact you could even say that it backfired on them. This is because it only made it possible for the king’s son to do all that the king had asked him to do.

The king stopped seeing them as the main ones who told his story and spread his message. He gave that responsibility to the ordinary people trained by his son.

The community sort of split into two camps. Those who followed the king’s son those who did not. The king did not forget those who didn’t follow his son.

The goody2shoes people lost the plot in a different way as well. They were kicked off that plot of land that their forefathers had been promised that they would live for ever.

Today their descendants have gone back to the promised land but life is not easy for them. Amazingly their main supporters are the descendants of the ordinary people trained by the king’s son.

More about what this means for us

The king does not forget his chosen people, even if they do wander from him. That is why despite listening to what others have said rather than doing what the king has commanded I have survived. If I had done what he commanded though, I could have thrived and things would have been very different today.

The thing is that we cannot change the consequences of past actions. We can change what we do today so that we don’t have to face such dire consequences tomorrow.